Sometimes it would be nice to have a plant tell you, quite clearly, what is troubling it. Unfortunately, plants don’t speak English but they frequently use a botanical sign language. Be careful though, their sign language is tricky! A wilted plant may be dry or it may have too much water. If the plants could speak for themselves, here’s some things they would like to tell you.-
- Late in the summer powdery mildew, black spot and other fungal infections start to proliferate. Some perennial flowers, such as Bell Flowers and Salvia, are already done blooming for the year so rather than fight the fungus, just clip the plant back to the base. If you want to treat fungus in the garden, Neem Oil is quite effective and organic with no delay in harvest time. Be sure to spray the Neem Oil in the evening to avoid leaf burn.
- If your container gardens are taking a break from blooming, you can encourage them along with fertilizer. If your irrigation system has a fertilizer unit, add 4 Tbsp. of water soluble fertilizer (such as Miracle Grow) to the canister. Otherwise, you can sprinkle in some fertilizer granules or use blood meal if you’d like to keep it organic.
- Purple Butterfly Bushes are blooming now, and they will continue to bloom and give you even more flowers if you cut off the brown pannicles.
- Russian Sage gets floppy if it has too little sunlight or too much water.
- Did you think that your tree turned yellow for autumn prematurely? It could be that it is suffering from an iron deficiency. Learn more about iron chlorosis from CSU Extension.
- Green beans, zucchini and some other garden vegetables sometimes go crazy producing fruit! Rather than trying to sneak it onto your neighbor’s porch, consider donating to the Larimer County Food Bank. Information on how to donate garden produce can be found here.
Are your plants trying to say something but you don’t understand them? Perhaps I can interpret! Send me an email, call or text me at (970)988-3808 to chat about your plants.